Brad Childress: This is a bitter pill to swallow for the Vikings head coach, who invested loads of man-hours into his man-crush on Favre.

There's a big reason Childress put so much of himself into the gamble this offseason — because quarterback's not just one blemish on his team that needs fixing, it's the wart that is holding back the Vikings from a Super season.

Now after all the phone calls, text messages, convoys to Mississippi — not to mention modification of a major portion of the playbook, Childress is back to square one and the Vikes are no playoff shoe-in.

Vikings fans: As if they hadn't been burned by Favre enough in the past, this episode has to be the biggest kick in the gut delivered by their long-time nemesis.

Face it, in one year's time fans in purple went from gloating over last year's Favre drama blowing up on the Packers to sporting egg on their faces now ... all thanks to dancing with No. 4.

And the Minnesota faithful had just talked themselves into accepting the idea of the "evil" Favre quarterbacking their beloved Vikings this season ... only to get bellywhopped yet again. They should have seen it coming.